| Appendix
2
Mesostic
Poems
Miekal
And is active on some other lists. I have to say to Patricia that I
wouldn't recommend the "...Higgins" work if you're
interested in examples of mesostics. A while back, Miekal And and I
had "discussions" about this (more - a debate). I
stated that they weren't mesostics. Since he's not here to present
HIS side, it may be unfair to bring this up...I'm not
sure...Let's just say that you can't just capitalize ANY letters
that fit what you want to spell out.
Cage created a type of
writing (that was later named "mesostics" ["row down
the middle"] with the help of Norman O. Brown) that spelled out
a name or word down the middle of a paragraph text. They were often
referred to as "spine" letters or "mesoletters".
These letters are distinguished by the others by being the only ones
capitalized.
The
two basic types of mesostics are:
50 percent mesostics: between
any two mesoletters, you can't have the second
and 100 percent
mesostics: between any two mesoletters, you can't have either.
On
a computer (for me, maybe someone knows) it is difficult to line up
text vertically so that everyone else will see the same thing. Cage
DID, on occasion, line up text horizontally with the mesoletters
capitalized.
So let's use "PATRICIA" and THIS email
text as an example:
50% mesostic: We look for the first word that
has a "p", but one that is NOT followed by an "a"...and
that would be:
Present
then we keep going thru the text (in a
linear fashion) to find a word with "a" that is
not followed by a "t":
mAy
"t" word
without an "r":
To
(and so on..):
suRe
(notice
that i didn't use "bring", because an "i"
follows the "r" and you can't have this) There are also
words that can be added that are known as "wing words",
but maybe it's best to continue this off-list. I looked at the
"Mesostics for Dick Higgins" site and it's the "kinetic"
version of the static text version that Miekal And posted to our
"Fluxlist" site. It looks pretty. My concerns were with
the static text version. There would be words, for example, - right
off the bat - that would contain
sequential letters.
Anyway,
it IS difficult to show someone if you're not physically right there
demonstrating or have not read some of Cage's texts.
Rod
Stasick
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